Uncovering the Relics of the Civil War - Buttons, Bullets and a Runner!

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:02]Couple of weeks ago, I made two really significant finds on the banks of this little farm pond behind me that sits on the side of an 1862 Civil War Union camp.

[00:00:13]I found a silver hammered Elizabethan coin called a half groat dates to the late 1500s. On that same day, I found my first and only gold coin I've ever found, an 1862 gold dollar. Because of that, I think I'm going to start calling this place Cold Harbor's Gold Coast.

[00:00:42]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Target here on the edge of this tree.

[00:01:07]Did I go on that's got [music] depth?

[00:01:10]Nope, it's iron.

[00:01:12]I am not going to be able to leave that until I found out what it is. Oh, piece of chain.

[00:01:18]Probably connected to some logging down here in the past or something.

[00:01:24]Oh, there it comes.

[00:01:27]>> [clears throat] >> I'm just digging it up because I can use that if I can get it out of there. Whoa, whoa.

[00:01:35]Should back my truck up to this and try pulling it out.

[00:01:48]Even when there's not a lot of Civil War relics, who doesn't love an extra log chain?

[00:01:55]All right, the second hole of the day.

[00:01:57]It seems like it could be brass.

[00:02:01]All right, out of the hole.

[00:02:03]Looks like uh-oh, I see round and I see green.

[00:02:07]Yeah, I see the uh the shank on the back.

[00:02:11]And the face is missing.

[00:02:14]You know what? I'll probably never find that. Oh, shoot. Look at this. I look back down where I pulled it up. And there, uh it's so toasty. Can see the shield in the middle.

[00:02:25]Broken up, but uh but there's an eagle button.

[00:02:30]From the soldiers who camped here in 1862. Maybe this is the guy who lost that gold coin.

[00:02:35]Well, the first hole of the day was uh that big long length of chain. Second hole of the day was an eagle button.

[00:02:42]Since then, it's been nothing but uh brass, modern pistol bullet shells, and shotgun shells. But, it looks like today may be the day of the chain.

[00:02:53]So, there's the second chain I've dug out of here.

[00:02:56]I'm just off the edge of um where the pond got cleaned up.

[00:03:01]And uh last time I was here, I hunted pretty good in that small area where the cleanup was.

[00:03:11]So, I'm coming off the edge of it a little bit.

[00:03:15]All right, very shallow, so probably a modern shell casing.

[00:03:23]Just a.22 casing.

[00:03:27]Just for reference, uh center screen is where I found the gold coin.

[00:03:32]Yeah, I'd be willing to bet dollars to donuts that that's a Civil War bullet. It's a bullet, for sure.

[00:03:40]Fired, mashed up round ball, I think.

[00:03:44]Since this was a camp, we don't find a lot of fired bullets.

[00:03:48]One bullet, one eagle button.

[00:03:51]That's a shotgun shell.

[00:03:53]We all love to find those. That's a modern slug.

[00:03:58]Yeah, big old piece of wire down in there.

[00:04:05]Again, dollars to donuts that this is a Civil War bullet. If you're hunting with the Deus 1, I hunt with the big head on the deep program, and this is what what a Civil War bullet sounds like.

[00:04:19]Can you hear how it's kind of got a little breaking tone?

[00:04:25]It's almost like a little two-tone warble, I call it.

[00:04:32]I ain't got the bullet. Let's see.

[00:04:37]A little bit further to go there.

[00:04:39]All right, we should be right on it right there. Some roots in the way down there.

[00:04:44]I feel like I should be touching it.

[00:04:46]Looks like I pushed it down further.

[00:04:49]That should got it out. Nope, it seems like it's further away than it was. It's bizarre. All right, I don't understand what's going on here, but I'm going to dig a little deeper and get this hole opened up because it's still in there, but unless there's a snake hole or something that the bullet fell down in.

[00:05:08]All I can think of is it must have dropped into an animal hole.

[00:05:12]All right, [snorts] tired of fooling with this.

[00:05:19]Yep, there is definitely a hole there.

[00:05:22]I'm sticking my finger in it right now.

[00:05:26]I've never seen this happen before.

[00:05:29]It is following that hole for sure. This is hilarious.

[00:05:33]It's trying to get away from me.

[00:05:38]I mean, look how far away I am from where I started digging on this thing. Goodness gracious.

[00:05:46]That is the first time I've ever had a Civil War bullet try to get away from me. This is where I started digging. That's where the signal was. I started digging here and [snorts] apparently I kept pushing it into a little hole and it ended up being right there.

[00:06:04]So, it moved a good foot trying to get away from me there to there. Maybe it wanted to stay in the ground. So, I'm hunting my way around the pond.

[00:06:14]I'm on the side of the pond that wasn't bulldozed or cleared.

[00:06:18]So, anyway, I got a signal here I think maybe a bullet.

[00:06:22]All right, got a little ways to go. I see it.

[00:06:25]Yeah, that white rim at the bottom of that bullet. That may be a fired bullet.

[00:06:29]All right.

[00:06:36]Got a signal that doesn't sound like a bullet, but sounds like it might be brass. It's right under this root.

[00:06:44]Uh-oh.

[00:06:46]What is that right under the root?

[00:06:50]Let me show you what I see. There's my signal and I believe I see round and that's about the right size for a button, right there.

[00:07:00]And we're not going to rub on it. Looks like just a standard eagle button.

[00:07:04]There's the shank on the back. All right, that's two buttons today.

[00:07:08]Nothing wrong with a two-button day.

[00:07:11]All right, we're not going to mess with that. We'll just let it simmer and we'll clean it when we get home. Don't want to mess it up.

[00:07:20]My battery's quickly dying.

[00:07:24]>> [music] >> Well, this was uh a short hunt for me. I only had [music] a half a day today and I haven't been in two or three weeks.

[00:07:31]Even though it's only been a short day, [music] I'm feeling it. Battery on my GoPro quit at an inopportune [music] time. I was heading back to the truck and I did manage to find two more Civil War bullets after the GoPro [music] battery quit. Two eagle buttons today, five bullets, but whenever I can bring a Civil War soldier's uniform button [music] home with me to put in my display case, that's a good day for me.

[00:07:58]And I got my two log chains. Who's complaining?

[00:08:03]>> [music] >> I know that some of you guys feel like what's [music] the big deal about a couple of eagle buttons.

[00:08:16]And I get it, because you've found shoe boxes full.

[00:08:20]Like you, I've found a few.

[00:08:23]I found pretty ones with lots of guilt on them.

[00:08:27]I found them green, I've found them brown, some of them in really, really beautiful shape, some of them barely hanging on by a thread, crumbly and falling apart. I even found one that was rolled up like a little miniature cigarette.

[00:08:47]But I also know that there's a lot of people who would love to find just one.

[00:08:54]For me, even though they're certainly not particularly rare or scarce here in the South, they tell a little bit of the story of the soldier who wore them.

[00:09:06]So I still get a little bit of a bump when I open a hole and I see a shank, or I see green, and I see round. It just still does something to me.

[00:09:17]>> [music] >> Everything look all right where you're I see [music] you surveying your domain.

[00:09:29]Everything meet your approval?

[00:09:31]So thanks for joining me for this little >> [music] >> relic hunt on what I've come to call Coal Harbor's Gold Coast. If you're a [music] subscriber to the Battlefield Walker channel, thank you for that.

[00:09:43]If you're not, I hope you'll consider subscribing. [music] Until we're together for another relic hunt, I'm the Battlefield Walker. [music] Be good.

[00:09:54]Say your prayers.